Blessed

I have been reading a new book by R.J. Rushdoony titled, "The Sermon on the Mount". It is basically a commentary of the Sermon on the Mount. At the beginning of Chapter 2 he makes the following comments:

"The Beatitudes again and again declare who are the blessed of the Lord. it is important, therefore, to know what this word means. The word used in the Sermon on the Mount is the Greek makarios; this word, however, is not used in a Greek sense, but in terms of its Old Testament and Hebrew meaning. Thus, in Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth," our Lord echoes two verses from the Psalms:

But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. (Ps. 37:11)

For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth; and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. (Ps. 37:22)

The Hebrew word used in Psalm 37:22 is barak, to kneel. To kneel is to adore and worship, so that, when man blesses God, as in Psalm 103, he is rendering to God all his life, service, and substance. He declares himself to be God's possession. When a serf knelt before a feudal lord, he acknowledged himself to be the lord's man. To bless God is an even more total commitment and surrender.

For God to bless man means that God bends down in His grace and mercy to aid man; it is sovereign condescension on God's part." (The Sermon on the Mount, R.J. Rushdoony, pg. 2)

I am reminded of Lamentations 3:22-23, "It is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because is compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."

Reformation Day

I have recently been reading Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and portions of his Explanations of the 95 and found the 4th a blessing. Thought I'd share:

4. The penalty of sin, therefore, continues so long as hatred of self, or true inward repentance, continues, and it continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

From 'Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses':
True sorrow must spring from the goodness and mercies of God, especially from the wounds of Christ, so that man comes first of all to a sense of his own ingratitude in view of divine goodness and thereupon to hatred of himself and love of the kindness of God. Then tears will flow and he will hate himself from the very depths of his heart, yet without despair. Then he will hate sin, not because of the punishment but because of his regard for the goodness of God; and when he has perceived this he will be preserved from despair and will despise himself most ardently, yet joyfully.

I'm Back

Oh, yeah. I'm back. New posts to follow. I have not had ready access to a computer that I could blog on for some time.

Quotes

Wanted to share the following quotes I heard this morning in church:

"Rather I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry." -D. A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry, 26.

"We are told men ought not to preach without preparation. Granted. But we add, men ought not to hear without preparation. Which, do you think, needs the most preparation, the sower or the ground? I would have the sower come with clean hands, but I would have the ground well-plowed and harrowed, well-turned over, and the clods broken before the seed comes in. It seems to me that there is more prepartation needed by the ground than by the sower, by the hearer than by the preacher." - Charles Spurgeon

Humanism has captured the American....

I recently read a very relevant statement written by R.J. Rushdoony in the 1970s.

"Humanism has captured the American scene, and the real religion of the United States is no longer Christianity but humanism. The courts have replaced Christianity in education with the new estabblished religion, humanism. Humanism has also captured the churches and is preached from the pulpit by men who are sometimes unaware of their capture. Love, man's humanistic love, is the new savior, replacing Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity."

-R.J. Rushdoony, Roots of Reconstruction, p. 572

Sorry for the Time Lapse

I am very sorry that I have not posted in several weeks. We are in the process of buying a home. It has been quite crazy around our home over the past six weeks. Although I have continued to have numerous encounters with very interesting folks to say the least over this time I have not had the opportunity to share these experiences due this home buying experience. Although I was not able to go into Bricktown last Friday night, I have had continued contact with a gentleman that I spoke to a week ago Friday.

On Friday August 10, during our trip to Bricktown we spoke to numerous people as we wandered around engaging folks in one to one witnessing. After attempting to speak to several groups of people with no one showing an interest in speaking to us we were approached by two men wanting to tell us about an "excellent money making opportunity", selling for Primerica Financial Services. Their names were Tyrone and Kenny. After listening to them tell us about the company, I began to explain to them that we were in Bricktown asking people questions as to what happens when you die. When they both answered that they guessed that they would go to heaven. I asked both if they thought that they were good people. They both agreed that they were. I then began to work through the Law of God to show both that they were not good. It was at this time that Tyrone began to show that he did not care about what I was saying. Kenny on the other hand stood with mouth wide open in total silence. I continued speaking to only Kenny as I warned him that we would all stand before God and be judged. It was then that we would either be "sentenced" to Heaven or Hell. As I continued to speak of judgement and then began to speak of the Cross you could see that God was working in his life. After continuing to plead with him to consider seriously the things of God they went their way to continue selling. We then spoke to several other small groups and continued to hand out tracts.

Early last week I received a telephone call (after our conversation I provided him with my telephone number) from Kenny. He said he was continuing to think and ponder the things we spoke about. He said that he could not stop thinking about the Law of God and his sin against God. This is a prime example of what the Law does. Paul said, "I had not known sin, but by the Law." Pray that the Law is Kenny’s schoolmaster to bring him to Christ.
Once again sorry for it taking so long for me to post again. I will try to do better.
Resting in Him,
Aaron

A Response to Carlton Pearson's View of Hell

I have received much feed back from christian friends from other parts of the nation that were shocked by the claims of Pearson over the weekend on the national news. This seems to fall into line with his heretical view of salvation. Below is one response I received from a gentleman through the School of Biblical Evangelism. Lord willing I will have my own response to this issue later.

Is Hell Reasonable? - A Question to Carlton Pearson...
"For the first time in my life I've not only felt saved, but safe," Carlton Pearson in explaining why he believes there is no Hell.

Reverend Carlton Pearson, an Episcopalian preacher of a church in downtown Tulsa Oklahoma called “New Dimensions”, has rejected the doctrine of Hell: “So, really, the way we've been taught is that God is worse than Hitler, he doesn't forgive billions of people… He doesn't forgive, and not only doesn't forgive them but tortures them forever? That's, obscene, absurd, and vicious. It's vulgar to say a loving God, who not only loved the world, but gave his only son…For the first time in my life I've not only felt saved, but safe…" This Episcopal Bishop is saying God told him not to teach that God will send sinners to Hell unless they repent? So now God is fickle and changes His mind? Are you, Mr. Pearson, saying that Hell is not reasonable? How about you? Is Hell reasonable? Rather than chew this bone over again I will turn to men who have already answered this question and done so very well. Maybe Carlton should have read this before he started teaching heresy…

Ray Comfort, from Hell’s Best Kept Secret: “So I say, “So if God judges you by this standard [the Ten Commandments] on the day of judgment, are you going to be innocent or guilty?” He says, “Guilty.” I say, “Well, do you think you’ll go to heaven or hell?” And the usual answer is, “Heaven.” A product of the modern gospel. I say, “Why do you feel like that? Is it because you think God is good and he’ll overlook your sins?” He says, “Yeah, that’s it. He’ll overlook my sins.” “Yeah, well, try that in a court of law. You’ve committed rape, murder, drug pushing—very serious crimes. The judge says, ‘You’re guilty. All the evidence is here. Have you anything to say before I pass sentence?’ And you say, ‘Yes, Judge. I’d like to say I believe you’re a good man and you’ll overlook my crimes.’ The judge would probably say, ‘You’re right about one thing. I am a good man, and because of my goodness, I’m going to see that justice is done. Because of my goodness, I’m going to see that you’re punished.’” And the very thing sinners are hoping will save them on the day of judgment, the goodness of God, will be the very thing that will condemn them. Because if God is good, He must by nature punish murderers, rapists, thieves, liars, fornicators, and blasphemers. God is going to punish sin wherever it’s found. So with this knowledge, he’s now able to understand. He now has light that his sin is primarily vertical: that he has “sinned against heaven” (Luke 15:21). That he has violated God’s law and that He has angered God and the wrath of God abides upon Him (John 3:36). He can now see that He is “weighed in the balance” of eternal justice and “found wanting” (Dan. 5:27). He now understands the need for a sacrifice. “Christ redeemed from the curse of the law being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). “God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We broke the law; he paid the fine. It’s as simple as that. And if a man will repent, if a woman will repent and put their faith in Jesus, God will remit their sins so that on the day of judgment, when their court case comes up, God can say, “Your case is dismissed through lack of evidence.” “Christ redeemed from the curse of the law being made a curse for us.” And, therefore, exercise repentance towards God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21), put his hand to the plough and not look back because he’s fit for the kingdom (Luke 9:62). That word fit means “ready for use”. The soil of his heart has been turned that he might receive the engrafted word which is able to save his soul (Jam. 1:21). “ As Ray explained, when you see, by the Law of God, that you are a violator of that Law, like all mankind is, then you see clearly you are not a “good person” but are indeed as God defines: “desperately wicked.”

God says there is none good, not even one. All have fallen short; every one of us only takes care of #1. Mr. Pearson has missed the mark. You, Christian, ensure you don’t do the same. Hit what you are aiming for, shoot for the conscience of the Lost that they may know they are an enemy of God through their wickedness. Let the Law of God do its work that they may see how reasonable their punishment is and how gracious God has been to provide a Savior. If Carlton allows the Law to do its work in his own heart he will see clearly he deserves Hell just as I would, just as you would. Yet (let’s all read it together): For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God.” (John 3:16-21, WEB) To have that everlasting life you must first agree with God that you are who He says you are: That you are a liar, a thief, a murderer and a blasphemer; That you have dishonored your parents; Not put God first above all things, including yourself; That you have desired what you did not need, did not desire what God wanted; That all that sin you have ever committed has made you an enemy of God. Hell is your reasonable reward; Only God can save you – and God WANTS to save you, but you must choose. I see the Episcopalian denomination is, as Christianity always is, having a battle over what is true. Only those who love the truth will agree with God unquestioningly, for… He who does the truth comes to the light.

Patrick Burwell Evangelist@OnlyJesusSaves.com President/Founder, OnlyJesusSaves.com